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14 Jul 2021The Aarav Syngth Experience:
updates (2021): april; may; june
Making stuff
Photographs
means of production, scope, and an intimate look into what aarav owns
14 Jul 2021"So what does it take to run a synth company?"
I wish I knew. It was time for reorganization so I decided to simultaneously catalog. Here are the things I own associated with the synth project. Everything is traveling with me in a sedan at the moment so I think I've managed to document all of it.
We'll start with tools because those don't come up as often in posts where I'm talking about synths (and they determine your workflow and process, it's important to understand what you're working with!). Here you can see two soldering irons, two multimeters (I don't know how to use the analog one, I don't even know if it works), a crimping tool, a solder sucker, and a couple wire strippers/cutters. Also photographed are some wires (22 guage, jumper) and cables (10 and 40 connection ribbon, mono [aka TS] 3.5mm cables [aka eurorack patch cables], mono [aka TS] 6.35mm cables, stereo [aka TRS] 3.5mm cables [aka aux cables]).
While we're talking about all these audio cables, we may as well get to the jacks. This picture shows a lot of my hardware prototyping resources: a collection of breadboards, protoboard, and stripboard [aka veroboard], a 9v power supply and cables, a mini oscilloscope, some 6.35mm TRS and TS jacks, and a box of switches.
Now we've mostly got boxes of components, which I'll go through from least to most interesting. First, here are some resistors and potentiometers [aka variable resistors]. At the right are some trimmer potentiometers and resistor networks.
Similarly not too exciting: boxes of capacitors (multilayer ceramic, box film, and aluminum electrolytic), some transistors, and LEDs (including RGB strip).
Next are integrated circuit chips [aka ICs], which merit more discussion than they'll get here. I'll go over what these do and why I have them more in depth soon. For now: these chips contain electrical circuits inside of them; this allows engineers to leverage complex circuits with relative ease. Some of the most important ones here are clocks, operational amplifiers [aka opamps], low-voltage audio power amplifiers, hex schmitt-trigger inverters, analog multiplexers, ripple-carry binary counters, digital delays, and various logic gates/comparators.
Last up for components are a few boxes filled with stuff. On the left is a box of prototypes, mostly filled with pedal and synth circuitry. On the right is a cache with most of the latest up-to-date hardware for the project that isn't attached to the current prototype. In the back is a box of components.
Taking a closer look there, we can see (from top left to bottom right): a bunch of encoders; some I2C DAC and signal generator breakout boards; switches (some 3PDT, SPST, and SPDT); cables, manuals, misc; power sockets; diodes (rectifier = 1n400X; switching = 1n4148, 1n914; zener for various zener voltages); raspi picos and arduino nanos; 3.5mm TS and TRS jacks and condenser microphone pickups; some solder and desoldering wick; male and female header pins; and some 3.5mm to 6.35mm converter cables/jacks.
I'd also like to photograph the musical gear I've got with me (a couple sets of keys; a few guitars and accessories) and add those photos here. But for the most part, what's shown here is what I'm working with.
I code on a 2015 macbook pro that won't let me upgrade past OSX 10.12 and I took all these pictures with a Pixel 2 XL. Feel free to remind me if I own anything I'm forgetting!
The Aarav Syngth Experience - June
30 Jun 2021My name's Aarav Singh, right, so Syngth is a pun on that. That part's fairly straightforward. The origin story of the full name (The Aarav Syngth Experience) has its roots in rock, pulling inspiration from Hendrix, but there's an intermediary step that involves high school jazz band small groups. A story for another post, perhaps.
Here, we'll talk through what I know and where I am. I'm writing this in July, so this is as close to real time as it's gonna get.
Let's discuss timelines, to help establish context. I've played the piano since about 2000, starting before elementary school. I took lessons through about middle school but it was never really a personal interest at the time. I started playing the guitar (apart from a bit of fiddling when I was an adolescent) last year in April, right around when I turned 23. It was a fun way to pass the time while I was stuck alone in my apartment and got me back into music after years.
January 2021 was when I got my $55 stratocaster and started messing around with the analog electrical side of music. I was learning movable maj7/min7/dom7 chord shapes and trying to really internalize the CAGED system layout of the fretboard. This was about a month after leaving full time employment, so I had time to sink in.
Late march was when I figured I'd do a project with my bud Mischa. I figured it would be easy enough to make a midi sequencer and mp3 player in an interface I wanted. In April, I started work. I spent most of the month designing and ideating. Lots of the ideas are now obsolete, and much of it was reinventing various wheels that have already been invented and perfected over the past ~50 years. I started doing tons of research on sound engineering and synthesis and instrument design. Turns out there's a lot of info on the world wide web. I started doing deep dives into the engineering of modern instruments and figuring out the workflows of modern music makers. In May I bought some starting electronics stuff and starting building guitar pedals and working on the raspi mobo and the physical implementation of the synth. Alright. Now you're up to speed.
Welcome to the experience.
So what'd I do in June? Well I got most of the hardware prototypes working to the proof of concept level. The prerequisite to much of that is getting all of it connected to the pi, so much of the work was focused on the motherboard. Here's what the second iteration looks like (check out my improving soldering skills!)
You can see that mobo, pi, encoders, and buttons interface together in the next couple pics
The ribbon cables make debugging way easier since they reduce the cycle time between writing code and testing it on different hardware. Here you can see the same mobo connected to breadboarded encoders when I was trying to identify the scope of some issues.
And now for some flashy pics, from when I got buttons and the screen working! This was right before the middle of June
About a week later, I got our first order of pcbs in! They don't work, the footprints don't work for all the components, but how cool is that!
These pcbs were designed by Mischa in Fusion but I'm currently trying to replicate and fix them in software that's more open-source accessible. KiCad isn't supported on my old version of osx (same reason I can't run ruby lol) and until I migrate to a linux ecosystem I've been trying to work in browser via EasyEDA. We ordered the pcbs from JLCPCB anyway (see puzzle in photo) and it seems like the best option at the current moment. I'm hoping to finish my version of the pcb and send it for printing by the end of July so it's waiting for me in Richmond when I get there in August.
Here's the evolution of motherboards so far, from very messy to custom fabricated :'4)
And right near the end of June, as I left Washington and lost access to Mischa's tools, I bought some replacements and some more materials. Most importantly, a nice soldering iron and digital multimeter. Also some ICs, some arduino nanos, a couple raspi picos, and some other miscellaneous electronics components.
All the new stuff I got in is framed by some very thoughtful and well-executed art made by some of my close friends from across the country, all of whom I'm excited to see in the coming months!
I'm not sure how much progress I'll make in July and August (while I'm on the road) but the progress being made is pretty exciting already. I'm hoping to have some fun stuff to show for next time; maybe I'll even have shown this site to some folks by then!
skies
26 Jun 2021This is less of a blog post and more of a photo collection of pretty drives, skies, and landscapes I collected during my time in the Pacific Northwest. Unlike most of my blog posts, the pictures here are presented chronologically.
I flew from Las Vegas to Seattle on March 10th, 2019 - one day before starting work. Here's the first pic I captured of Washington, a shot of Rainier taken somewhere above Elk Plain.
Soon after getting to Washington, I made a trip up to Vancouver.
In July, I got another pic of Rainier - this time from Rainier Vista Park in the middle of UW, while playing frisbee and doing cheer pyramids with some friends.
The only other pic I have from 2019 is a pic of the sky taken from my office in november, when the sun was setting a couple hours before I'd leave for home. I took this exactly a year after my interview for the position, the first time I had ever seen Seattle!
Now on to 2020, the only full year I've lived in Seattle! The first three months were spent working a fairly busy schedule, I barely saw any sunlight and have no pictures from that period. The next six months after that were spent alone in my apartment for the most part. In June, I was living in Capitol Hill, Seattle a block away from the SPD East Precinct. These are a few pics from June 1st around my neighborhood
June 2nd, 2020 was the first time I personally experienced agents of the US state deploy flashbangs, pepper spray, and teargas on civilians. Over the course of the next weeks, I took a few photos of what I saw from my roof and from the ground.
June was also when I started seeing people outdoors again, and I caught a couple fun pics of seattle and cranes while I was out fishing with three of my buds.
After spending March-August alone in Cap Hill, I moved into an Idahoan airbnb with friends in September. Here's a pic going from Clark Fork back to Bonners Ferry after a day of hiking.
In October, I moved back to Kirkland, WA with the bulk of that group. Here are some pics of the beautiful trees in our neighborhood that fall.
Right near our house was Juanita Beach, and we made good use of the fresh air and scenery while confined to mostly outdoor activities. Here's one of my roommates standing at the dock near sunset.
That same november I drove down to California to spend some time with family over Thanksgiving. Here are a couple pics driving down from Sacramento
and one driving back up in Oregon
Which leaves us with our last picture of 2020, a photo from my room showcasing stormy yet sunny skies and some (still all working!) string lights.
I don't have too many skyline photos from the first half of 2021 but I did capture some of the snow that covered our neighborhood in February
Later, in March, someone else took this pic of me walking to the Marymoor climbing wall. I left this one till the very end, not only because chronological order dictates I put it here, but also because it's better than a lot of my own photos. My only solace is knowing that the picture just wouldn't be the same without me in it, and thus it would've been nigh impossible for me to take.
In June, my last month in Seattle (this time around), I took a skyline pic in Belltown
and I remembered to grab one of the pink and blue sky in Marymoor as well.
I ended my time in Kirkland by driving out, headed (indirectly) to Virginia. As such, I think it's fitting ending this post with a photo I took headed from Washington to San Francisco, the last time I was in the Pacific Northwest and the first leg of my journey east!
hikes
20 Jun 2021Hiking isn't my calling, it's definitely not one of my most time-consuming hobbies, but it's so conducive to picture taking that even a few good hikes make for a good blog post. I'd have been remiss to have missed em during my time in Seattle
These photos start off with a trip to Bandera Mountain with my friends Ariana, Chris, and Peter in June of 2020.
Last September we also hiked Scotchman Peak in Idaho
and we stopped by the Columbia River near Echo Basin in Quincy, WA on the way back to Seattle.
In October, some of us went to Annette Lake
where Chris got dangerously close to falling into the water
success!
In March, I got this pic of the six of us at Douglas Fir
and later in June I saw many baby squirrels at Rattlesnake Ledge with Christy
Although it would've been ideal to end on something more impressive like Mount Rainier, something that my friends Peter and Chris would summit just a couple weeks after I left Kirkland, I did manage to hike Mailbox as a fairly challenging finishing feat. It starts in the trees
and eventually you gotta climb up a buncha rocks
Then you get to the Area of Goats
as you close in on the summit!
While you're there, you get beautiful views of all around the valley
including a straight sight at Rainier
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